Honestly, if all the OP cares about is his isk/hr. And the only thing he is using those accts for is mining. Then yes they should be sold off or stripped. And the money saved from Keeping them active every month can go towards buying plex. Would be far more efficient.

If OP is smart though. He would do what most everyone who runs mining fleets does and set up multiple income streams per account. At which point they cover their own sub cost+ and anything mined is an extra bonus.

If OP is smart though. He would do what most everyone who runs mining fleets does and set up multiple income streams per account. At which point they cover their own sub cost+ and anything mined is an extra bonus.

This is something I am trying to do with my 2 accounts, and failing… but hey I’m still trying.

It only takes a few of months to get a mining alt up to “good enough” with 3 characters per act you can run enough planets to earn a good 2 bil monthly from the PI alone. (For 2 accts)
Pull 2 skill injectors out of each miner a month and that’s the accounts and extractors payed for. Yes it will cut your sp gain in half effectively. But beyond a certain point the yield increases are fairly minimal anyways. Waiting a little longer for perfect skills is an easy trade for not having to grind ore for plex.

@Bjorn_Tyrson I don’t want to hijack the post away from the OP, but I have PI skills on all 6 toons, so I can run 36 planets, thing is my mains are all in high sec, there is a wormhole option which I may take up and get the PI running again (just joined a new corp). I’ve never quite worked out the skill point farming and its optimum use.

I had been in null many a year, and in WH space where the PI pickings are plentiful. But it has always been as a PVP player using PI as an aside income. I wonder if an industrial options were available in null… but then I think about how the hell would I get all the advanced materials for T2 items, it would be cost prohibitive with JF costs.

Why do I mine? Because mining pays for my plex every month plus whatever else I want to do. And I mine in hi-sec only. With only one account, no multi-boxing as i only have one Omega account. So yeah, mining is good.

Null industry is awesome actually. (I’ve recently moved on from the uni because my industry needs where out growing what was available.)

Advanced materials are expensive yes. But they don’t take up that much volume so the JF costs can be quite minimal. Additionally if your alliance holds any moons, you can talk to them about purchasing products on site possibly even for a discount.

If your alliance has any substantial amount of mining you can often arrange to buy internally again saving money on shipping. Add to that the substantial ME bonuses to null industry and it stacks up fast.

Focus production on doctrine ships and you will have a ready supply of customers.

Sov null is going to be much better for industry over all. But a group like the uni is good for dipping your toes in on a more casual level.

But why should I spend my time mining minerals for lower isk when I could rat and use the money I make there to buy the minerals I need to manufacture stuff as passive income?

From a purely profit motive point of view, you shouldn’t. If you can make more isk from carrier ratting than from mining, you should carrier rat. If carrier ratting becomes sub-optimal for some reason, do what makes more isk.

So I ask the community why should I not just sell my mining characters and/or skill injector off their skills and just using a carrier on 1 account?

Maybe you should. If you don’t enjoy the process of mining, don’t feel it will ever be worth doing, or feel you will never mine again, it may be worth while to sell the SP or characters.

Here are some reasons to keep them though:

If the market shifts and mining becomes more profitable than carrier ratting, you can jump into mining quickly and easily. This can happen for various reasons, including if enough miners give up mining.

You’ll have an option for another activity if you get sick of carrier ratting

The “opportunity cost” people forget that profit is not the only reason people play multiplayer games. Otherwise please calculate the missed opportunity cost of all those ship spinners and all the people who sit around in comms all day talking instead of actually “maximizing isk/hr potential”.

Mining is a (relatively) low risk/low reward timesink. Yes you can measure mining lost profits in missed opportunity cost isk/hr, however the only real investment is TIME. Some people have a lot of it.

ut why should I spend my time mining minerals for lower isk when I could rat and use the money I make there to buy the minerals

Less minerals on market = more expensive minerals = you work even harder for less.

Zarcnois_Epsillon:

So I ask the community why should I not just sell my mining characters and/or skill injector off their skills and just using a carrier on 1 account?

Couple of Rorq pilots can do 1 Bill per hour without breaking a sweat. You need many more carriers to match what a few Rorq miners can do and you would need more accounts making the net ISK gain even less.

Real ISK is in mining (ok renting, but you will never run a renting alliance). Without it there are no 20 Bill supers and no 100 Bill Titans (~ the ranges the last time I cared to get current numbers on them). Minerals are the lifeblood of the game.

Of all the posts here I haven’t seen one good post with a compelling reason to mine. other than " do it for fun/relaxation" but don’t do it for isk even though that is the main reason most people do anything in eve other then pvp.

You should not mine, pack all your stuff up and biomass yourself. Problem solved, stupid whiny kid. We are not here to convince you to mine, either mine or don’t and if not , shut up and move on

i think you are with the wrong group of people, not sure what are the current Braves but there are plenty indy corps within powerblocs who do care and protect miners. Like in Provi, there is always Orca boost available and Rorq fleets are run on schedule.